Tony Mowbray gives an honest assessment of where Sunderland start as he weighs up 'balance' dilemma

A 1-0 defeat to Cardiff City last Saturday, days after a big win away at Huddersfield Town, highlighted the ups and downs which have marked Mowbray's tenure so far.

It appears that the injury issues which have played such a big part in that are far from easing, with Mowbray hinting on Thursday that he has been presented with yet more problems this week ahead of a difficult game at Birmingham City.

Mowbray admitted his youthful, attacking selection didn't work last week and says it's part of the process for a largely inexperienced group.

"It's a balance for me at this moment at this club, it's about how many attacking players I put in the team and how many defensive minds I put in the team," he explained.

"I know the team want to be a front-foot, high-press team that plays with energy and gets the crowd going, and that's what I want. I felt as if the communication was an issue last week, which is not to lay a burden or blame on anyone. We're talking about some wonderfully talented players, Abdoullah Ba and Amad for example, whose physical data in the last three games has been up there and beyond most of the team. It's not the running or the lack of work, it's just about the detail. I spent time with Abdoullah before the game explaining how he had to be good out of possession, because this is a different Cardiff team these days with a lot of rotations who can pick through you. He almost took it too literally in terms of marking players and as a team, we were too easy to play through in the first half. Yet it was 0-0 at half time and we were pretty good after their goal, albeit they probably went into defensive mode a touch. Both teams could have scored in the first 20 minutes, they caused problems but we got into some really good areas on the break and with a better final pass, we feel we could have scored.

"We did want more control, I just think it's all part of learning the curve for this football team. For example, how you gamble when you're trying to get back into the game. We haven't had an environment where there has been much time for coaching because of the schedule. I think that's why the world-class managers don't take a job mid-season, because they want that summer period to drill their players.

"I didn't feel I needed to change much when I arrived here but then we've had to go through a lot of personnel changes, we've lost both of the strikers from that period for most of my tenure.

"I'm hoping this break can help us get some players back and then we can get some consistency in selection, and then in performance. We've got a lot of learning still to come.

"It's still not clear exactly what the team will look like for Millwall but hopefully we will have players back."

Mowbray could recall Corry Evans and Alex Pritchard to the starting XI.